Quarterbacks under center for T-Wolves' attention
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Three are in a battle to earn playing time this fall.
By JOE E. CERVI, THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
As players on the Colorado State University-Pueblo football team butted heads during team drills Sunday, three others remained far removed from the action.
Joe Vigil, Silva Nsumba and Nick Thurman had a football in their hands, and together they muddled through agility drills and a light workout.
Then they were welcomed into the CSU-Pueblo football fraternity.
Vigil, Nsumba and Thurman are quarterbacks, and they are battling to be under center Sept. 6, when the ThunderWolves play host to Panhandle (Okla.) State.
For the first time in eight practices this spring, the quarterbacks were live during scrimmage situations. That meant they were allowed to be hit.
Defensive end Jeremy McWilliams said the quarterbacks would remain live "for about two plays once we get to them."
Then again, Thurman, at 6-foot-4, 235 pounds, is one of the biggest players on the team. Nsumba and Vigil, though not as tall, are athletic enough to hold their own.
The three potential signal-callers traveled different routes to Pueblo.
Thurman, a strapping left-hander and brother of former major league pitcher Corey Thurman, was recruited by Division I Bowling Green out of high school. He spent one year there as a red-shirt freshman, then opted for baseball over football for the next two years.
After a stint at South Mountain Community College in Arizona, Thurman, now 23, landed in the ThunderWolves' lap.
"I don't think I'm done with baseball, but I want to get a grasp on football and concentrate on this right now," said Thurman, who also wanted to play baseball at CSU-Pueblo. "All I know is our practices here are harder than they were at Bowling Green. We're working a D-I schedule at D-II. The way the coaches are teaching us, this is the best football situation I've ever been in."
Vigil, 19, played two years at Mullen High School, under former NFL player Dave Logan, before transferring to Littleton. He attended an NAIA school in Kansas before moving to Pueblo.
"I went to Mullen and they brought in some guys and the writing was kind of on the wall," Vigil said. "I grew up with the kids at Littleton, so I went there. We made the (Class 4A) playoffs my junior and senior years."
Vigil, the smallest of the three QB prospects at 5-8, 165 pounds, has been getting as many reps as any player.
"I need to work on my footwork and just being a leader on and off the field," Vigil said. "My arm has always been a strength, and I can move a little.
"Hopefully I'll be lucky enough to get to put on a jersey this fall."
Nsumba, too, was part of the Mullen powerhouse before transferring to Cherry Creek and former Puebloan Greg Critchett. The Bruins were set on grooming Jack Elway, son of Denver Broncos legend John Elway, at quarterback, so Nsumba moved to defensive back.
The 19-year-old thought about walking on at CU, but decided to head south.
"I never even knew there was even a college here," Nsumba said. "Now, the word is out up in Denver about this place. This is football country and this has a great college atmosphere."
Nsumba's strength is his athleticism and could prove to be an asset to the T-Wolves.
"My athletic ability helps in case a play breaks down," he said. "There's a lot of competition right now, but all three of us quarterbacks try and help each other out."
With no less than five quarterback recruits arriving this fall, the three current quarterbacks could have an edge for playing time early.
Head coach John Wristen, a former college quarterback at CSU-Pueblo, said teaching quarterbacks is a little more intense than teaching other positions.
"They're like your kids. You need to teach them not to touch the stove because the stove's hot. They don't know it until you teach it, or they get burned. We're trying to teach these guys the system and how to manage the game. We have to cut down on the mistakes, because we make a lot of them.
"But I really anticipate one of these three being the guy against Panhandle."
